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Sunday, January 6, 2013

A fair start

How are your New Year's resolutions going? I decided to devote the first couple of months this year to improving my health. The new habits I'm trying to establish are:

Eating breakfast. And by "breakfast" I mean something somewhat nutritious, prepared at home, and eaten shortly after waking up (as opposed to a muffin or scone purchased at work in the early afternoon once I'm starving).

Drinking 8 (8oz) glasses of water, and cutting way back on sodas. I could drink Cokes all day long, and have been for some months now. That's not good.

Go for an extra walk (or do something else active) for 30 minutes, three or four days each week. I already take a long walk with my husband and dog every night, but I still feel the need for some extra exercise in my life. Most of the things I really enjoy doing involve sitting in a chair. Which leads me to my last health resolution for the year.......

....take up some new hobby or sport, something active, that I will enjoy and can incorporate into everyday life.

I felt that these six goals were do-able, and not too intimidating. So far, I've had total success with numbers 1, 2, and 3. Number 4 has been harder. Although I've cut down on my Cokes, I haven't been drinking as much water as I need to replace them. It's so hard to learn to like plain water when you have a soft drink habit, even though we have a nice filter and it tastes OK. It's just dull and I forget to drink it. I need to get better at this!

As for the extra walks, I haven't done those even once yet. The weather has been bad--cold and rainy and miserable--so even my nightly walks with GB and Ginger have been somewhat shorter than usual. I'm trying to be realistic about it. I figure that getting more active is going to be a process, something I won't be able to accomplish all at once, and when I'm genuinely deterred by bad weather that's nothing to beat myself up about. I haven't been purposely avoiding it, which is all that really matters.

I would love some suggestions for number 6 (a new hobby or sport) if anyone has any ideas. I need something fun to do besides walking to get me up and moving! I've considered fixing up my bike and riding, but after that I'm fresh out of ideas. Anyone have any thoughts about this? Something you enjoy that gets your heart rate up? (Besides going to a gym. I shudder at the thought of that.)

How are your resolutions going? I hope everyone's New Year has gotten off to a good start this week!

2 comments:

Great goals for the coming year! For a long time I wasn't much of a breakfast eater either, but I resolved to get better at it in my mid-20s and now usually do eat breakfast or a brunch type meal most days - it's simply to important to skip.

I tend to be a very eclectic person so I have a lot of hobbies and interests, more than I can spend time on each week for sure - care to take one of mine? Jokes aside, I'd suggest thinking back to things things you truly enjoyed as a child (a certain sport, a favourite class, a hobby you liked doing back then) and seeing any of those are things you can reintroduce into your life again as your new hobby for 2013.